Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Hansard source

So we have made some observations both generally and specifically. I will start generally. Senator Wong, complaints from the opposition regarding governments and question time are not unique to either side of the chamber. While it has been noisy in the last two days, since we resumed from the winter break, I haven't detected a noticeable difference in question time, other than the amount of noise. When I come to Senator Cormann's point about the claimed observation he wanted withdrawn, I didn't hear it. I'll look at Hansard and I'll approach senators. If there is something recorded that Senator Cormann may have heard—I'll see what I can find out.

On other questions today, there have been more-broadly-worded introductions to questions. This has, in my view, allowed ministers to be directly relevant to the question and to provide some of the comments that you've highlighted, Senator Wong, which you don't think are appropriate but I think are directly relevant. The way I have interpreted and recorded this particular question is that it was seeking a fact from a minister. To be directly relevant to a question like that, one must be speaking about the fact. One does have the right, as a minister, to provide some context around that, which is why answers are not just 10 seconds long; they can be a minute long. So I'll ask the minister and remind the minister of the specific fact sought by Senator McAllister in asking the question. Senator Payne.